Not a really in-depth post this time, but something I did want to highlight, especially now it becomes relevant also to people who read Japanse mystery fiction in translation...
Back when this blog first started out, the only English translation available of Yokomizo Seishi's work was The Inugami Clan. It would take over a decade for more of Yokomizo's work to be published, starting with a re-titled re-release of the The Inugami Clan translation as The Inugami Curse, but publisher Pushkin has since also released many other entries featuring who is perhaps Japan's most iconic fictional detective, at least, if you ignore Edogawa Conan... (disclosure: I have worked on translations for Pushkin). In Japan, Kindaichi Kousuke is without a doubt seen as one of the best known fictional detectives of the country. This is not only because of his attire, but his stories, set mostly in a post-war Japan, were perhaps contemporary when many of the most famous books were written, but in the years that follow, these stories started to offer something nostalgic. Of course, the post-war world as depicted in the Kindaichi novels is not portrayed as something that is good per se, but there's something familiar about the world, old-fashioned in its culture and mores that may have changed in the many decades that have followed, and often in a positive way, but there's still something recognizable in these books that invoke some kind of nostalgic reaction.
When reading up on the growth of the series, you'll often come across the term the "Yokomizo Boom" that occured in the 70s. This might be over a decade after most of the now most famous novels were published, but it was in this period the novels were really re-discovered by the general audience and the franchise gained a new life. The 1976 film Inugamike no Ichizoku was of course one of the major symbols of the succes of the series: it was the very first film of newly established studio Kadokawa, the film that would determine its future. Fortunately, the film was received well, leading to several sequels starring the same production/cast (Gokumontou, Akuma no Temariuta, Jooubachi and Byouinzaka no Kubikukuri no Ie) and it put Kadokawa on the right track to slowly grow, and it is now one of the major film studios in Japan. Of course, the bet on doing Inugamike no Ichizoku as the first production was based on data: the book publishing arm of Kadokawa had been having a great success selling paperback releases of the Kindaichi novels, and that is what the Yokomizo Boom really was: making the books available at a reasonable price for the mass market. Kadokawa still releases these pockets of the Kindaichi series and it's one of the most enduring lines in the fiction catalogue. These pockets really brought Kindaichi to the wide audience. While the books had been adapted before too before the 1976 film of Inugamike no Ichizoku in various forms, it was really the seventies that made it a huge franchise.
The 1968 adaptation of Yatsu Haka Mura is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the original book. While it is set in contemporary times (so 1968, and not the original 1948), it follows most of the book, something possible because it's certainly not a short adaptation at close to 500 pages. Some parts are of course a bit brief: some characters like Tatsuya's far-off relatives Shintarou and Noriko make few appearences, but hey, that's better than the adaptations where they get cut completely, right? The story also immediately tells you about the horrible deed Youzou (Tatsuya's father) did in the very first chapter, something that is usually revealed a bit later, but I guess it made for a more dramatic (and bloodier) first chapter... But as a manga, this version of Yatsu Haka Mura reads quite well, and especially the art by Kagemaru really captures the oppressing, dreadful atmosphere of the isolated community that is the Village of Eight Graves, and the further the story goes and more murders occur, the creepier it becomes as the villagers start to show their hostility towards Tatsuya more obvious. The artwork also conveys the horrible murders quite well, and as a suspense manga, it's quite good.
And I do say suspense manga, because like the original novel, Yatsu Haka Mura is not a puzzle-focused mystery story. It is a suspenseful horror-adventure, that is great in atmosphere, but not much of real detecting goes on. Kindaichi appears a bit more often in the manga than in the book I think, though he's always only just a character seen from Tatsuya's POV, but still, the tale's mostly about following Tatsuya as things go on in the creepy village and he finds himself slowly cornered by all the events going on. Again, the art really emphasizes this element of the story, and makes it quite an enjoyable version. Just don't come in expecting to read a proper detective story where there's much... detecting going on.
But as also mentioned in the every important Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar, a guide on the history of mystery comics in Japan, it was the enormous success of this manga during its serialization that convinced Kadokawa Haruki to publish the original novels as mass market pockets, creating the Yokomizo Boom in the 70s, cementing Kindaichi Kousuke's image as the Japanse fictional detective. In fact, there is a reason why Yatsu Haka Mura is indeed the first Kindaichi Kousuke pocket released by Kadoakwa, and why it is still numbered as the first one in their pocket releases, even though it is not the first novel in the series at all. This too can be traced back to the comic.
Anyway, I doubt this manga adaptation will ever see an English release, and even in Japan, it's not kept in print, but still, it's kinda interesting to see how much influence a comic adaptation can also have on the future of a series. In a way, perhaps we'd never have seen English translations of these books now if not for the existence of this comic adaptation! So in that sense, I think it was at least worthwhile for me to read this adaptation.
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